SEO Agency Musings – Thoughts from the mind of an SEO addict

Over the course of 2017, Google made plenty of updates to their algorithmic formula. While any individual who interacts with me knows that I am the last individual to indicate algorithm modifications holding any kind of significant importance to your day to day web development, the method google is using needs to be monitored, although key factors will remain. Good user experience, solid backlinks from relevant white hat sites, amazing content etc

Last year, I composed a piece on some of these updates eg Panda and so on.

In it, I wrote that “every upgrade is a user experience focused update,” which matters right here once more because I believe Google has actually been pushing this same message given that late 2016.

We typically aren’t seeing any named formula updates any longer (e.g., Panda, Penguin, and so on), but instead are seeing “regular, quality” updates that take place every few weeks which are impacting an amalgam of signals instead of focusing on one aspect of your site as they have done in the past.

You need to beware of this message because this message will only grow more powerful throughout 2018 and also right into the future.

Individuals that continuously spend time digging around for a magic formula regarding why an algorithm change might or might not have actually caused their site to have a boost or reduction in traffic are misunderstanding and also are squandering beneficial time that would certainly be much better spent on making their sites much better, which is the key factor.

What site owners should focus on in 2018 is to take that point to heart and also forget such things as you need to just focus on your site and user experience!

Search Engine Optimisation is ending up being more crucial year after year and also those that spend time on boosting for quality and also user experience of their sites will certainly benefit substantially.

Which brings about the next factor:.

Just focus on a More Experience-Centric Web.

This year 2018 is by far most likely to be the year we begin to see even more emphasis on an experience-centric internet, and also Google goes to the forefront of that development.

As individual behaviour patterns trend toward a much more immersive as well as informative web, firms are taking on new innovations, such as PWAs and AMP, to provide that experience.

For many years the suggestion that customers’ attention spans and attentions have actually been decreasing has actually been generally accepted by the market, as well as therefore, video clips have ending up being much shorter and web content has actually been broken up into absorbable blurbs, which has actually resulted in a shallower online experience.

Interestingly take note that in 2017 we began to see user habits buck this trend as well as users begin to demand even more info and also education before rewarding site owners with a conversion.

A lot of this could most likely be associated with the more cost-conscious millennial that is even more protective of their pounds as well as their intent to feel connected to the brand names they buy from.

With that in mind, exactly how do you connect with folks effectively on the web? The clearest path is to develop an internet experience that helps them submerse themselves in your brand name, website and also just what you are about.

2018 will certainly see increasingly more business taking on brand-new technologies and with that said, a new obstacle for natural search online marketers will certainly surface as individuals press these modern technologies past their intended function and aim to obtain them to create web traffic as well as conversions.

Creating an experience that individuals can get in touch with is important, but we also need to see to it that Google could make a purposeful connection.

Google Is Shaping Your Site’s Indexation on Its Own merits.

In early 2017, we started to see changes in indexation and crawl speeds, especially for large websites.

Each week was a different story, where we would certainly have enormous amounts of pages indexed one week, and afterwards see substantial amounts ignored the following week.

Why was/is this taking place? The solution is that Google has been shaping our sites for us and we expect them to continue to do this throughout 2018 as well as into the future.

We simply mentioned a much more experience-centric web starting to take hold of our industry.

Google, much to the shock of every SEO pro, is not obsessed with making our lives harder, yet instead, is obsessed with giving their customers the best customer experience possible.

Why do they do this?

Since they desire customers to continuously use their monster internet search engine so they can remain to serve them advertisements and make profit off the back of it!. Ignore all the guff that Google are nice. Google are a business, a huge one and they are a shark in the internets waters. The biggest shark.

To make sure that customers are getting that A+ user experience, we are seeing Google taking a long, tough take a look at the kinds of pages that exist on your website and positioning a more judgmental eye on them.

Mostly, we are seeing faceted pages and search results page pages that live on your site, being dropped from the index making way for higher quality “central” web pages such as group web pages, product web pages, blog articles, and so on

. Cutting the fat from your website is frequently referred to as “sculpting”, and also it’s something that everyone must be taking notice of in 2018.

While it’s great that Google is working in this manner for users, you really don’t want to leave it totally to them to figure out as well as you need to be taking this issue into your own hands and being sure you meet the standards they are seeking.

Take a look at your website and also see what pages are essential to your users and after that see if they are going to double take at anything on your site. If you think this is happening, it might be time to think about cutting the various other web pages out and replacing them with quality content.

Google’s John Mueller also stated that commonly having fewer solid pages is far better than having numerous weak ones.

This is a fad that is continuously acquiring momentum month to month and also in 2018 this could be something that will certainly make or break your site, particularly if you are a massive merchant with a great deal of faceted pages and also search result pages. (eg dupe content or thin content)

This is also an additional fad that speaks with an enhanced understanding of the quality of your site and its material.

You constantly are wanting Google to find the best pages on your site, so you might also take control of your sites ranking prospects as well as tell them where these mega pages are.

While going through this exercise, take a minute to reassess all the web content on your site and see if it can be improved as we are seeing that:

Earlier we pointed out customer behaviour trending toward the need to learn more as well as education leading up to a conversion.

While even more individuals, particularly more youthful ones, are rewriting the rules it alters the perception of what longer-form material can be.

Historically long-form web content has actually been seen as well as made use of as early-stage web content to attract new customers to visit your site by answering a question or resolving a wide topic that your product and services addresses.

It was never ever implied to be a high-pressure sales pitch, but instead, position your business as a thought leader in that area and also plant the seed that you can help fix the user’s trouble.

2017 saw a modification in customers behaviour and communications with this kind of content. The customer who is looking for even more education and learning around a subject before they buy a product connected with it has actually assisted transforming long-form material right into even more of a transactional medium than it’s ever been.

In 2018, we will remain to see this fad as increasingly more visitors look for more information and also education prior to investing their pounds and the companies that acknowledge this pattern and involve themselves with their customers by doing this will win big at the end of the day.

So, How Essential Is Search Engine Optimization in 2018?

You can see that there are some common themes that tie together all four of these fads.

– Google is aiming to index as well as rank higher quality pages.

– Customers want a more immersive online experience.

– Google is pressing a broadened focus on the individual’s experience and ranking accordingly.

– Customers are searching for more information as well as education prior to buying.